An Australian design duo that wants to shake up sustainable urban transport options is representative of the evolution of accelerators about to hit the local start-up scene.

Hugh Worthington and Will Wansey, with their finance mate Sean Foley, are behind Chunk Moto – a business that converts the humble postie motorbike into an electric vehicle. The idea came out of a Big Green Idea grant from the British Council. “We’ve invented a two-speed electric transmission that lowers the cost of building a good performing bike," Mr Wansey said.

Chunk Moto is one of five start-ups chosen to participate in Ignition Labs – a clean technology focused start-up accelerator, which is backed by a consortium of investors and mentors, venture capital fund Starfish Ventures and university-backed incubator ATP Innovations.

“We were really excited to be chosen," Mr Wansey said. “Ignition Labs gives us the business skills and the contacts we need to turn a project into a business."

Chunk Moto joins two online collaborative consumption ventures, Open Shed and LoadMax, as well as MicroEnergyLabs, a software developer providing real-time energy consumption data, and Zenogen, which will develop carbon electrodes for hydrogen production.

The companies will receive $25,000 seed funding in exchange for a 7.5 per cent equity stake. They will get office space in Sydney and participate in a three-month program, finishing with a roadshow in Australia and the US.

ATP Innovations chief executive Hamish Hawthorn called Ignition Labs an “experiment" to determine whether the accelerator model – often used for technology and web-enabled start-ups – could be applied to more complex problems. If so, ATP may pursue other niches.

“We’re potentially looking at the medical and life sciences," he said. “We’ve got this rich heritage of great biomedical engineers."

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Mr Hawthorn said the traditional accelerator principles, such as rapid development of a product, followed by customer acquisition and testing, could be modified for more complex businesses. For a medical device company, an accelerator program might focus on “getting a path to market and getting a clear understanding of what a potential partner or acquirer is going to value", he said. “Validating the market is the key outcome for a seed accelerator. We should not limit ourselves to accelerators only working with web and mobile."

Niche accelerators are becoming common overseas, such as TechStars Cloud in Texas and Rock Health in Silicon Valley. The founder of local technology start-up accelerator PushStart, Kim Heras, said the benefit of focusing on a niche included access to industry experts and classmates working in the same field. He is considering running an industry-focused accelerator in the health, education or financial services, saying Australia does well in these, “so it makes sense to run a program that targets one of them".

But Mr Heras warned that often the most disruptive innovation comes from outside an industry. He said niche accelerators can end up drawing from a more limited pool of applicants. ATP Innovations director, business development, Andrew Stead, said while the number of Ignition Labs applicants was lower than he had seen at other accelerators, “the quality is higher".